Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1887-02-21
Agriraltrtral Depart ileaf.
Better Crops on Fewer Acres


The experience of the last few
wears has shown that the only way to
successfully meet the strong compe-
tition.to which farmers are EXPOSED
is BY increasing the productiveness OF
their land. The time has passed
when even with improved machinery
we can run over large areas of land,
RELYING on the cheapness Of cultlva-
+ion to offset the -smallness of the
product. Prices of farm products
have lowered with more than even
mace with improvements in farm ma
chinerv1 Our reapers and harvest
ING machines are sold and used IN
Russia. and even in India, where the
peasantrv work for lower wages than
A merican farmers can or should be
expected to receive. Yet so long as
these are our competitors we must
either work as cheaply as they do or
m Ike our work more effective, which
must be, by producing larger crops or
those which require a degree of skill
and care in their cultivation that the
half-civilized ryots of India are not
likely to give. We have this advan-
tage now in growing wheat from the
superior quality of our product. The
wheat from India is very foul with
weed SEEDS, and always more or less
damaged by heating before it can be
got to market. 1t can only be sold
at an inferior price, and as the prod
net per acre in India is very low, it is
only grown because the extremely
cheap rates of wages makes even a
small return per acre more profitable
than letting the land lie idle.
No one needs to tell American or
English farmers that wheat is one of
the severest crops in taxing fertility,
and that while with cheap labor a
Weld of six or eight bushels per acre
of inferior wheat is at the time prof
table, vet the soil is all the time be-
coming more exhausted. After few
wears even this small yield will be de-
creased so that wheat can no longer
be grown. Unless improved farming
rever SEES this condition of things, the
competition of India wheat growers
must be diminished by soil exhaustion
against which no increase of railway
facilities can avail. With crops that
even now barely pay cost of growing
by the cheapest labor, it will take
little farther exhaustion to place them
below that point. If improved farm
methods are adopted, it will neces-
sarilv involve a change from semi-bar-
barous to a civilized condition of the
wheat growers. They will demand
and receive better pay for their work
and thus their competition will be on
more equal terms with that of our
own farmers. We are just now in a
more critical stage, from competition
in growing grains, than we have ever
been before or are likely to be again
either the India wheat growers will
impoverish their land, or they will
improve their farming and increase
their expenses.
In the meantime, those who grow
large crops can make a living even
at low prices, and wait for the better
time Unat Is sure to come. The con-
centration of labor and manure on
smaller areas of land will do this.
1t may be that wheat growing must
for n time be subordinated to crops
which demand more labor and richer
soil. 1t is possible to make land too
rich for successful wheat growing.
In England, where the average wheat
crop is twentv-eight or thirty bushels
per acre, it is likely that much land
is thrown out of wheat cultivation by
being made too rich, and this as
much as anything else may be the
cause of the yearly. decrease in wheat
production. If farmers in the United
States could equal the English aver
age wheat crop it would pay for
growing even at present low prices.
But with an average yield of only
thirteen bushels per acre, not only
higher than any that are likely soon
to prevail, must prove Improbable.
We must remember that though the
present conditions of India wheat
growing are only temporary, vet the
fact that cheaper wheat production is
possible because of improved labor
saving machinery is permanent one
and must always be considered.
But there are other crops where
increased production is possible, and
where we can have no competitors.
Land can never be made too rich for
corn. and the possible yield is far be-
yOnd the average in the State where
it produces most per acre. Potatoes
are another crop where in our own
markets successful growers need fear
no competition. With yields of two
or three hundred bushels per acre, as
against the average Of about seventy,
the successful potato grower will
rarely find the market price too low
for profit. 1t is low yields, not low
prices, that are mainly responsible
for the prevalent depression in farm
ing. The advantage of this state of
things lies in the fact that low Yields
can be remedied by better cultivation
and higher manuring, while low pri-
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